Agricultural Soil Carbon coverage.
Overview
Agricultural soil carbon is a nascent category in India's carbon market, with projects concentrated in the wheat-rice belt of Punjab and Haryana, and in dryland farming areas of Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra. V4 rates agricultural soil carbon credits with particular focus on permanence: sequestered soil carbon can be rapidly reversed if farmers revert to conventional practices. Our methodology links permanence verification to farmer payment evidence, because practice reversal is almost always preceded by payment failure.
Sample ratings
Illustrative ratings drawn from the V4 database. Project codes are anonymised.
Quality in the agricultural soil carbon category
Agricultural soil carbon credits from India are a small but growing category. Quality ratings tend to cluster in the BBB-B range, reflecting genuine methodological challenges around measurement uncertainty and permanence. Projects with strong farmer payment infrastructure and independent soil sampling tend to score higher.
States covered
Common issues in agricultural soil carbon credits
- -Farmer payment disbursement delayed or incomplete
- -Soil sampling conducted at 15-20cm depth vs required 30cm+
- -IMD-verified weather anomalies not reflected in sequestration models
- -Satellite imagery analysis shows crop patterns inconsistent with claimed practices